Computing and network technologies have transformed many aspects of everyday life. Computers have become household staples rather than luxuries, educational tools and/or entertainment centers, and provide individuals and corporations with tools to manage and forecast finances, control operations such as heating, cooling, lighting and security, and store records and images in a permanent and reliable medium. Networking technologies like the Internet provide individuals virtually unlimited access to remote systems, information and associated applications.
As computing and network technologies have evolved and become more robust, secure and reliable, more consumers, wholesalers, retailers, entrepreneurs, educational institutions and the like are shifting paradigms and employing the Internet to perform business rather than using (?) traditional means. For example, today consumers can access their bank accounts on-line (e.g., via the Internet) and perform an ever growing number of banking transactions such as balance inquiries, fund transfers, bill payments, and the like.
Typically, an on-line session can include individuals interfacing with client applications (e.g., web services) to interact with a database server that stores information accessible to the client applications. For instance, a stock market web site can provide users with tools to retrieve stock quotes and purchase stock. Users can enter stock symbols and request stock quotes by performing mouse clicks to activate a query. Client applications can then query databases containing stock information and return appropriate stock quotes. Users, based on returned stock quote information, can thereafter purchase or sell stocks by supplying suitable information, wherein submitting buy or sell orders initiate database queries to return current pricing information and order status.
Based on the ever-increasing use of the computer and/or the Internet, numerous transactions related to goods, services, and/or commerce have become commonplace. Although the use of the computer and/or the Internet for transactions has rapidly increased with vast improvements related thereto, techniques and mechanisms for uploading and/or posting data related to online transactions is lagging far behind. Conventional procedures for posting and/or listing advertisements via the Internet often require several tedious steps which can be time-consuming, inefficient, and extremely meticulous. Moreover, an average user can be dissuaded from posting/listing advertisements online based solely on the required level of involvement, wherein such exclusion can deteriorate the effectiveness and broad reach of online transactions.